Sunday, January 22, 2012

Homemade cleaners

Asthma, allergies, and cost are all beasts of hurdles around here. My fragrance sensitivities cause me to make quite the production of buying even simple things like deodorant. I will go the the deodorant section, pick something out that looks promising and take a deep whiff through the nose. Then I wait. If I don't get a stuffed nose and an itchy face, I buy it. After that it's still a bit of a crap shoot.

Anyway, I've taken to making household cleaners because it's cheaper, there is no fragrance (at least once the vinegar dries) and the cost is mere pennies.

This is the glass cleaner we found yesterday once we ran out of the blue stuff.  And it works!  There's cornstarch in it which is totally counter intuitive but what can you do in the face of solid evidence that it works?

The bathroom cleaner we use is a mix of 1/4 cup vinegar, 1 T borax, and 1 T dish soap and fill the rest of the bottle with warm water. Swirl it around to help dissolve the borax. My dish soap happens to have bleach in it (Ajax, once again CHEAP) and I use the grapefruit scented variety. It seems to work pretty well, and of course it's ridiculously cheap.

Other homemade products I love include using normal baking soda as an exfoliant for the face. Wash your face with your normal soap. Sprinkle a bit of baking soda on a damp cloth, gently massage your skin with it (paying particular attention to the T-zone), and rinse. Finish with toner and lotion.

What are your favorite homemade solutions?

2 comments:

CrustyCupcake said...

My mom used to make us clean the windows with straight vinegar! No paper towels either! A rag & vinegar! Yummy way to spend a Saturday morning!

Kassi Babe said...

I was having a problem with deodorant causing me rashes. I switched to this. Crystal Body Deodorant. its just a chunk of salt. Works great for me I do not get stinky at work. They do break easy,so you have to be careful. If you want to try one I have some small travel size i can send your way

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Crystal-Body-Deodorant-Rock-3-oz-/250829527817?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a669adb09